Intent

Ship Slice 2 only: background listening core for iOS Talk Mode, with minimal lifecycle changes and no broader audio pipeline refactor.

Changes

• add Background Listening toggle in Settings > Device > Features (talk.background.enabled)
• on app background, keep Talk Mode active when the toggle is enabled and Talk Mode is on
• on foreground return, skip unnecessary Talk restart when Talk was intentionally kept active
• add changelog entry with attribution

Scope Guardrails

• no voip entitlement changes in this slice
• no route-change handling rewrite
• no chime/push-speech queue additions
• no chat.push behavior changes

Attribution

• extracted from the background voice intent in feat(ios): background voice mode with improved TTS handling #17319
• Thanks @zeulewan

Validation

• pnpm check

Notes

• This is the conservative core-only behavior slice. Hardening follow-ups (route handling, speaker bleed policy, etc.) will land in Slice 3.

Greptile Summary

Added a conservative Background Listening toggle for iOS Talk Mode that allows the microphone to remain active when the app is backgrounded. The implementation correctly checks both the user preference (talk.background.enabled) and the current Talk Mode state before keeping listening active. State is properly tracked through the background/foreground cycle with the new backgroundTalkKeptActive flag, ensuring Talk Mode doesn't unnecessarily restart when it was intentionally kept running. The feature is off by default for battery conservation and has appropriate UI messaging about battery usage.

Confidence Score: 5/5

• This PR is safe to merge with minimal risk - conservative implementation with proper state management
• The implementation is clean, focused, and follows the stated scope guardrails. The logic correctly gates background listening on both user preference AND Talk Mode being enabled. State management through background/foreground transitions is sound with proper flag tracking. The app already has UIBackgroundModes audio entitlement, so no capability changes needed. Default-off provides safety, and the changelog properly documents the change.
• No files require special attention

_{Last reviewed commit: d7cf7b8}